Tor can help you anonymize web browsing, by bouncing communication around a distributed network of servers called onion routers.
This is nice, but how this helps?
If the communication is bounced over network of servers and the last server that forwards communication located in US, Pandora will think that the user himself is located in US and will not block him.

So what we need is to force last server to be in US and use Tor only for communication with Pandora. This is done in four simple steps:

Open torrc file from Start->Programs->Tor and add paste at the bottomStrictExitNodes 1exitnodes desync,whistlersmother,lefkada,bettyboop,croeso,TorLuwakOrg,nixnix,inap1,redpineapple,cronic,sasquatch,slowturtle2

This will force the last server to be located in US.

Create tor.pac file. I have created it directly under c: drive (c:\tor.pac).Start by creating new text file. Open it in Notepad and paste

Set tor.pac to be used for automatic configuration in Internet Explorer.

Open Internet Explorer. Go to Tools->Internet Options.Select Connections tab.Open Lan Settings by pressing the button.Check/Select 'Use automatic configuration script'.Write in Address "file://" following the tor.pac file name with full path. I wrote "file://c:\tor.pac" (without the quotation marks).

Now you activate Tor from Start->Programs->Tor->Tor and run OpenPandora. It will take some time until Pandora will load, but when it loads the music never stops.

175 comments:

Thanks for the detailed explanation.However I still can't get it to work properly.Tor seems to create a 'cicruit', but nothing happens on OpenPandora, and Pandora's website still identifies my location :(

In torrc file there is a line similar to this one: "SocksPort 9050 # what port to open for local application connections"It declaires the port used for tor. Here 9050. Same port number is used in tor.pac file. Check if they are equal.

Also, just today Pandora showed the restricted page, but stated that my IP is from US. I refreshed and everything worked.

One more thing. To make sure that IE settings work, try to open http://pandora.com when Tor is down. You should see IE error navigation page. Otherwise your IE settings are wrong or tor.pac is incorrect.

Just a thought: I'm actually connecting via some sort of a VPN connection (more specifically a cable modem) and the internet settings the script is for are LAN settings. Could this be the reason I can't connect yet?(thanks for the tips, Eitan, but all the settings seem to be in order)

it seems that your office network configuration requires that proxy for outgoing connections. i don't know whterher tor can be configured for using it too, but i believe this is possible. check with Tor project http://tor.eff.org/contact.html.en

We believe that you are in United States (your IP address appears to be 204.13.236.244). If you believe we have made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com

We believe that you are in United States (your IP address appears to be 204.13.236.244). If you believe we have made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com

Why in the world I am still banned despite they found me in United States?

An alternative to Tor is HotSpotShield.com. It is a VPN server that you connect to via a small program installed on your computer. The service is meant to protect wireless surfing from internet hotspots but works for Pandora by providing you with a US IP address. It is simple to use and effective.

"The location of your torrc file depends on the way you installed Tor.

*On Windows, you can find it in the Start menu under Programs -> Tor, or you can find it by hand in either \Application Data\tor\torrc or \username\Application Data\tor\torrc *On OS X, open your favorite text editor and load /Library/Tor/torrc *On Unix, if you installed a pre-built package, look for /etc/torrc or /etc/tor/torrc or consult your package's documentation. *Finally, if you installed from source, you may not have a torrc installed yet: look in /usr/local/etc/ and note that you may need to manually copy torrc.sample to torrc"-- taken from http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#torrc

4. I code for the web, so if you use IE I hate ya. =P On the other hand, if you have a conscience and happen to use Firefox here is how you add the pac script:

Tools/Advanced/NetworkClick on the Connection Settings buttonSelect "Automatic proxy configuration URL"and if you have it in the location specified in the tutorial then you should enter "file:///c:/tor.pac"You may need to hit the reload button, I dunno.Then just hit the OK buttons and start listening.

"if you have a conscience and happen to use Firefox"Your web browser preference is of no consequence here. OpenPandora uses an Internet Explorer control which in turn uses Internet Explorer's proxy settings.

Although I followed exactly the descriptions, and despite I'm able to make Pandora work at my brother's place, I'm having the same error message as Graham described above home. Any ideas why is this happening?

yepp, some routers aren't online. but my config is still running. i will post some exit nodes later. but you can take a look to new exit nodes by yourself if you are running vidalia (graphical interface for tor) under windows.

there you open the network map via tray icon and sort the list of nodes. choose nodes with us american flag and a long uptime. write the names of nodes into your torrc and restart.

Pandora loads through Tor, but does not stream. When Pandora player shows the CD that should be playing, the litle progress bar on the bottom does not move, as if it is on pause. Could it be that Tor servers started blocking Pandora's stream?

At first I couldn't get this to work, but when I changed my LAN settings to use file://c:\tor.pac.txt instead of file://c:\tor.pac, it worked. In case anyone else has a similar issue, this may be the solution :D

I'm finding that recently Tor is having troubles finding exit nodes. Half the list supposivley aren't real servers and the other half aren't on. Are there any alternative servers? If you find any other US Tor servers plz email me

If I open Tor, start OpenPandora and the shuts down Tor I can still play. Does this make sense or am I just lucky. Does Pandora only verify that I am in the US on initial connection or how does it work?

I don't use OpenPandora, but I just set my IE homepage to pandora so I use Firefox for browsing and IE for music... works great :) I grabbed the Vidalia bundle so I can see the list of active Tor servers, I simply sorted by country and started writing in server names.

This works perfect with Pandora.com in IE :D (can I make it work in Opera?), but when I try to open OpenPandora, it doesn't load for a while, then the window closes. Then I can't open it again, and when I check the prosess monitor, the prosess is still running, it just doesnt do anything.

I have followed the instructions, used the helps on the blog (setting up the latest server list seemed to be the thing that did the trick) and it is working at the moment. Thanks very much I am now listening again in France.

Hi, I installed the vidalia bundle to find more usa exit nodes. Now i am able to connect to pandora through firefox (well, it's a bit jumpy), but not through OP. I tried to manage the application's proxy settings, using "127.0.0.1" or "localhost" for host, "8118" or "9051" for port. What else?

I got some problems with the tor today. It says it can't connect to the exit server because no exit routers are running.

Anyone else got this problem recently? Or know how to get this working again? Maybe changing the nicknames in torcc to something which works could help if these aren't online anymore or something... Don't really know where these in this guide came from so kinda hard to try.

I thought the new posts were at the top... I should check the dates -_-

Anyway, someone mentioned the Vidalia interface for Tor and I got it working again by changing the nicknames in the torcc file (couldn't find option to enable the exit ones to be only in US). The vidalia has a clear list of all nodes which are currently online, how good connection they have, and the location with a flag logo.

Thanks to someone who found the Vidalia, the tor is much easier to use now ^_^

Hey hi i solved the problem you have to change your ip adres after 2 days They're Blocking your ip after 2 or 1 day later. if every step is right and pandora is stuck on loading this is the reason. I changed my computer it worked im listening

Hello everyone! Did alot of digging around today to find out how to get hold of Pandora after they close to the UK on the 15th! Discovered Tor and OpenPandora on this blog! Installed them both, and followed these instructions and all seems to be working well, Xenobite's Torcheck reports that the exits are from the US. Pandora works alot quicker this way than listening off its website too!

I'll be back after the UK close, to let you all know if it still works... wish me luck and thanks so much guys! (I also installed the Foxtor firefox plugin, seems a bit of a mistake according to the comments, worked but I disabled it & very worried about uninstalling it, so don't touch it at all!)

Goodness me Marcel! You should have told me about this earlier and it would have saved me alot of work today! Think installing Tor was worth it though.

Have to wait til the UK close before I can see if the site properly works for me. I was hoping that someone could defy the closure, so good on them! Hope that it doesn't put Pandora in the US under higher risk though.

Still testing out Tor and OP, working alright so far. I'm a NEWBIE And the instructions on this blog are pretty straight forward, looks scary but pretty easy, just read them through carefully.

Again cheers Marcel for the tip off! You've really got your finger on the pulse, you clever man! :)

I would really like to access Pandora from a standalone device ie my Sonos music system. I am not able to install any software on it (as it is not a PC) but may be able to alter its default gateway. If I did this and pointed the default gateway at a PC with Tor could I use this approach ?

globalpandora always sais that their enginners would be working on some problem: "We're having unexpected technical difficulties. Our engineers are scrambling to fix things. Please try again later." Does that mean they're working on blocking Tor?

GlobalPandora and TOR are now both broken. Pandora is progressively banning all the IP addresses of the proxies they use. Sometimes you can listen for a few songs, but eventually it cuts out and ur screwed.

Give it a good poke and you can still open it up, guess it won't hold out much longer though!! Thank goodness I managed to get in and delete all my stations. Don't want my musical tastes hidden away somewhere and sold later!

I suspect Global Pandora did the damage here, using Tor to gain access! Shame on you GP, you've ruined things for the rest of us!! (should have kept that secret to yourself Marcel!)

I loved OpenPandora too, although it stopped working after the UK close, I don't think my IE goes through Tor, so that's probably why. But I loved it while it lasted. So gracious thanks to you Eitan and Dirk!

Well everyone, the end is just beginning... so where do we go from here?

I had this working great for a couple of days and now suddenly Pandora won't load anymore - anyone else having these problems? Is mevlutpamuk right that you have to change computers every few days to change IP address? Does anyone know how to fix this without changing computers?

i managed to install tor and set it up, which worked brilliantly for a couple of days, now its stopped and if i go to the pandora website in ie (configured to use tor) i get the following message:

"Dear Pandora Visitor,

We believe that you are in A Banned IP Address (your IP address appears to be 204.13.236.244). If you believe we have made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com"

if i open pandora in firefox (not configured for tor) i just get the usual message that pandora is restricted because i am in the uk. it seems they have blocked the ip addresses of the tor relays :(

Thanks danyo, but I still couldn't get it to work with the new server list.

Also now when I try to run Tor, it just opens and closes itself in the space of a second. Trying to run OpenPandora also resulted in a "error running script on this page" message - I've uninstalled and reinstalled both programs but the problems still occur.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar? Are people still having success using Tor? Cheers.

Well after I drastically deleted most of my stations last time I posted I'm pleased to report my UK Pandora listening is going well :) (straight off the site of course)

My Tor has slowed down quite a bit (and sometimes really painfully slow which is so annoying!) from adding those Exitnodes to my collection but it's a small price to pay I guess! I think the order of them makes a difference, perhaps the quantity too, must check that out.

Now wouldn't it be great if a couple of our Exitnode friends over in the US were able to mask their IPs... I think we'd all be home and dry. Is that possible?! I dunno!

Next up to try and get my Open Pandora working again... gosh I miss it! Anything I've overlooked in trying to configure IE to pick up Pandora through Tor let me know!

I have openpandora running with vidalia in Vista.Any suggestions for getting it to submit to last.fm?I have my acct details entered in openpandora, and music is playing (yea!) but nothing is submitting.Thanks for the help getting this running up to this point. Really great!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I missed Pandora so much. Sometimes I managed to use it by switching to US proxy but mostly it wasn't successful at all. OpenPandora is just great. And for those who claim it's way to technical: come on, I'm not a computer geek and I managed to install everything, including Tor about which I'd never heard before, in something like ten minutes... Great job!

All of these have speeds over 400KB/s (according to Vidalia) and I have noticed they are online 24/7.

I used a Tor add-on called Vidalia to check the nodes. On Vidalia you just need to open the "Tor Network Map", sort the list by country and then scroll to the nodes with US flags. The ones with 3 yellow bars should have transfer data speed over 400KB/s.

Note that you can't have the regular Tor and Vidalia open at the same time.

Hope this helps people who are having slow connection speeds with Tor ^^

@sami_l - er - and everyoneNow tracks played in OpenPandora are submitted to last.fm for me.I re-entered my last.fm user/pass and now it is working. I did that about 20 times before to no avail. Maybe using sami_l's exit nodes solved that problem too?!Thanks for your help... and thanks for OpenPandora!

crud...last.fm submission actually IS NOT WORKING for me...I don't know what else to do. Of course I enjoy the music anyway... but last.fm submission would be really great.Thanks and sorry for taking over the comments lately!

I tried the batchfile you mentioned and although the commands loads up fine my OpenPandora is still stuck on that "Please wait Pandora is loading" start page... just as before, I still don't think my OP is going through Tor yet... it was worth a try, thanks Katch.

Thanks for the program, I, as an international Pandora-lover, think it is awesome. The only problem is that openPandora doesn't load, and when I try to go into the Pandora page in IE, it says that the IP is from germany and it is banned. What can I do to fix this?

SQJTaipei, just because the Vidalia won't use the restriction to use only US exitnodes even though the code and names are set correctly in the torcc file.

Anon, I think the shortcuts are on the OpenPandora and not the webplayer. Looks like there is no such shortcut for OpenPandora currently. Why do you want to use th "zzz" so often anyway? You might want to add some more seeds on the channel if it feels like too repetitive.

I've been looking recently at everything posted online about getting pandora to work from outside the US and nothing posted is working for me. Not sure if it's the same for everyone else but if someone that knows or has an update on what to that would be great. please post...

I'm really not happy - morally - with this solution, it's not why Tor exists and the network is bandwidth starved enough as it is.I doubt anyone of the posters here have gone to the trouble of understanding what Tor is, and why it was set up:

on the flipside i think that if it helps with something which may seem trivial then its still progressing in its work.

you dont need to be in handcuffs and at gun point to be in the beginings of sensorship and oppression. music may be minor and inconsequential but should we not fight for everything, or only the really morally offensive stuff.

I think there is a better way, using pickaproxy.com. They do not yet have support for a tor.pac file like you describe here, but they are working on that. The things they do better are as follows:

(1) They make sure the US exit nodes specified are valid, fast and running - they do change a lot. (2) They make sure the US exit nodes specified are safe. Jalopy, for example, which you specified here, is likely (possibly) run by the US government and it may not be your best choice, though it is extremely fast. Some suspect they are logging all Tor traffic coming through them for later analysis at their leisure...(3) They do not require you to install or maintain your own version of Tor.(4) They give you other country-specific options besides the US.

Using Tor so selfishly for downloads or streaming music is stealing bandwith from a privately funded network and taking it away from people who depend on anonymous internet due to restrictions in their country. I just hope they find a way to block this Pandora music junk. I hope.

by the way i had to search where the torrc file was because it wasn't where i thought it would be... and i used this link to help me with that http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#head-1793e1e8a4701ba463b5b82b33f59e787ff752f9

works great!but...can i reverse it ? cause id like to be "me" again.i tried to undo all the steps...but my ip still seams to be the one from the states.funny thing is..that my opera and my firefox browser are showing me the same thing.

checked it here http://www.wieistmeineip.de/ (its german ...but "herkunft" is like...origin)

I followed all the instructions, but when I try to open "tor", it cannot open, and says lost shortcut. I deleted everything, and did it again, but the same. Is there a problem with the tor file? This is very upsetting, I am almost giving up.... but I really want to listen to pandora ! Is it because I use Vista?

If you have problems use the IE and navigate to www.pandora.com. At this point I was asked if I want to activate my local internet setting or something like that. After activating it works fine for me.

@Dark: I get what you're saying, it IS a bit frivolous, but in the final analysis people who need anonymity don't need speed, so the more nodes there are the easier it is for them to connect, even if the network's more congested than it would be without the Pandora users. And if even a few of them leave Tor running even if they're not listening to Pandora it helps the network immeasurably!

Works for me even without the *.pac file. Now it would be even better if somebody could create a crack for Slacker radio. I tried creating the *.pac file with the URL of Slacker in place of Pandora's, but it still identifies me as "outside the US".